Due to the increasing needs for imaging devices such as printers, copiers and fax machines, the needs for various exchangeable imaging cartridges, e.g. ink cartridge, associated with imaging devices are also increasing.
Generally, an imaging cartridge includes a chip, where communication protocols for communication with a particular type of imaging devices and chip data are stored. Chip data includes, e.g., model of the imaging cartridge, management data for imaging cartridge ink, and characterize data and control data corresponding to the type of the imaging device. A particular type of chips where corresponding communication protocols and chip data are stored are installed in a particular type of imaging cartridges which can only be used in conjunction with a particular type of imaging devices. Therefore, as the numbers of imaging cartridge and imaging device types increase, imaging cartridge manufactures have to store different types of chips so that imaging cartridges which can be equipped on different types of imaging devices can be produced.
In order to overcome this drawback, universal chips have been invented. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,088,928 discloses a universal chip, the system of which determines through the chip whether an imaging device is a first type imaging device or a second type imaging device; if the imaging device is a first type imaging device, the chip is operated in first operation mode; and if the imaging device is a second type imaging device, the chip is operated in second operation mode. In the universal chip system, the chip used together with the imaging cartridge in the imaging device includes a storage element for storing imaging cartridge data and a controller for controlling operation of the chip and determining whether the imaging device is a first type imaging device or a second type imaging device. If the imaging device is a first type imaging device, the controller is adapted to operate the chip in first mode, and if the imaging device is a second type imaging device, the controller is adapted to operate the chip in second mode. The storage element of the universal chip requires a lot of space to store data for each type of imaging devices, and the controller of the universal chip needs complex and long programs to distinguish each type of imaging devices, therefore required resource space is large and manufacture cost of the universal chip is expensive.